Naruto: Ichishinkingen!
by Calamity Heart
Summary: As time passes, things change. Wounds heal. Peace sets in. But peace never seems to last for very long. As the ninja world continue to recover from the Fourth Shinobi World War, new threats begin to surface. Changes are made. New wounds open. Tension erupts. And it rests on the shoulders of the next generation of ninja to usher in a new era of peace. Reviews are cherished!
1. Prologue: Elation

_Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you._

A flash of lightning animated the shadowed sky above the Hidden Leaf Village, followed promptly by an almighty rumble of thunder and an increase in the cascade of rain showering the streets and flowing off roofs and awnings as cataracts. The village beneath the downpour was silent and sleeping. Many building lights had been shut off for the night, including those at the Hokage Residence. Haruno Manor, aptly named for its occupant and quite near to the Hokage Residence, was one of the only buildings still lit, and housed one of the only villagers still awake.

Sakura Haruno, standing under the awning of her balcony, brushed a strand of her signature pink locks behind her ear as she watched the dark torrent, though she didn't seem to be paying it any heed. Her eyes were clouded with distraction, and her mind was clearly somewhere else. Glancing down at herself, she lifted the lower hem of her nightshirt, grimacing at the large, harsh-looking scar under her naval. Almost immediately, memories began to dance in her head.

The feeling of unbearable pain, the sound of crackling electricity, and the scream of horror calling out her name as she fell to the ground, expecting death within moments… These were the earliest memories she could recall of her ordeal. The next thing she remembered was awakening in a hospital bed, being nursed by Shizune. The two met eyes for a brief moment before exhaustion forced Sakura to fade back into unconsciousness.

"_For the most part, Sakura, you've recovered…"_ came Shizune's soft voice in Sakura's next clear memory, the afternoon preceding the end of her rehabilitation. _"But… There was some lasting damage. The electric shock that struck has left many of the nerves of your core very damaged. You're physically unable to exert yourself, and it would not be in your best interest to conduct in any dangerous or strenuous activity for at least the next few years. For now, you'll have to retire as a shinobi."_

"_Y-Yes...? And what else?"_ Sakura asked Shizune that day. She could tell that the rest of her friend's news would be grim by the tightening of her throat.

"_Ah… When you were struck, it tore a hole through your body, Sakura, and judging from the point of impact on your body, it would appear that the attack has… irreparably damaged various organs of your reproductive system. We did all we could, but we could not restore your fertility. I'm sorry, Sakura, but you're unable to conceive."_ Shizune announced solemnly.

A soft sigh fell from Sakura's mouth as the vague and broken memories ran over and over again before her eyes and into her ears. No matter how hard she tried, she could remember no more of that fateful day that began the end of her happiness. Not who did it, not who she was with. The only other thing that occurred to her is when this all happened: five years ago, during the apex of the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

Sakura brought one hand to her temple, the painful memories starting to give her a headache. As she gave her skull a brief rub, she lowered her nightshirt again and turned on her heel to reenter her bedroom. She closed the balcony doors to dampen the noise of the rain, pulling the curtains shut as well to darken the room and bring sleep easier. Just as she was about to climb into her bed to finally retire for the evening, a distant sound caused her to pause. She waited a moment and kept her ears ready to hear out the sound again.

*knock* *knock* *knock* *knock*

Someone was at the door. The idea of anyone being awake at this hour or outside in this weather caused Sakura to furl her eyebrows in concern. Thinking it must be very important, she quickly threw a thick robe around her scant nightwear and rushed out of her bedroom and down to the ground level of her manor.

When Sakura opened the door, she was a bit confused at seeing that no one was there. The soft sound of a child crying drew her eye to the ground, where she was surprised to see a large blanketed basket sitting on her step. Picking the cradle up, she immediately determined that it was too heavy to be carrying a newborn. Her surprise shifted back into confusion, then quickly returned to surprise as she saw that in the woven bin was not one, but three infant children. The irritated cries of one of the children stirred the other two awake, and they joined into the noise. The three of them appeared to be competing, each child trying to cry louder than the other two.

"Shh…" Sakura tried to soothe them, to no avail. Looking around briefly, Sakura attempted to find the trail or chakra of whoever left the children there, but there was nothing, and the babies' cries only got louder.

"Shh… Shh… It's okay…" she whispered to the crying bantlings as she turned and carried them out of the thunder and rain. As she closed the door behind her, concern dominated her thoughts, but in the back of her mind, something else was starting to sprout. Something that she wouldn't identify until later in the lives of her 'new' children.

Elation.

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**A/N: I hope you enjoyed the prologue chapter! There will be more to come for sure! n_n If you like what you've read, by all means, leave a review saying so! If you didn't, leave a review telling me how I could make it better! Readers are the rocks I stand upon, so if you want the story to survive, be good readers and review!**


	2. Analysis: Team Neji

**A/N: Welcome back! If you liked the last chapter, this one should be a whole lot better! :D The first four real chapters of the story, starting with this one, will focus primarily on introducing the main characters. Their mad skills will come later, I promise.**

_Proverbs 2:12 - To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things_

_Proverbs 3:15 - She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her._

Twelve years later…

"Uuuuuuuuuuuugh…"

A worn pen flew across the large room, followed by the loud and perturbed sigh of the blue-eyed man reclining in the seat behind his desk, stacked with freshly read, signed, and organized documents.

He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair as he stared proudly at his conquered payload, at least for the day. Just as he considered closing his eyes and taking a midmorning nap before his advisor came with the Genin analysis sheets, that's exactly what happened.

"Lord Hokage? I hope I'm not disturbing you." came the elderly voice of the man entering the office. He was a lithe man with thick brows over heterochromatic eyes; one was golden, the other deep onyx. His voice betrayed his age, but his body did not. While a bit on the portly side, his hair had barely greyed, nor did his skin lose its youthful tautness.

"Not anymore, Gasho." Naruto sighed, peering at the folders in his advisor's hands. "Are those the-"

"Analysis sheets, yes, my lord." Gasho confirmed, setting three of the folders on the desk beside the other stacks of forms. He opened the fourth. "From the looks of your desk, it seems you're quite sick of reading forms at the moment. How about I read and summarize the reports I've received from the squad leaders?"

"Ah, that'd be _great_, Gasho." Naruto sighs with relief as he begins to recline again. "Hit me."

"Alright, then…" Gasho murmured as he opened the folder. Clipped to the first page of the group of papers within was a picture of a squad of three young Genin and their Jonin leader. "I have here Team Neji first. Led, of course, by Neji Hyuga, and made up of Sedai Uzumaki, Shindoi Nara-Yamanaka, and Suni Haruno."

Naruto rubbed the faint hair on his chin with interest. "All three of them had high marks in the Academy."

"Indeed, my lord. Out of all four active Genin squads, Team Neji is currently the most progressed and the most adept. Since their formation, they haven't failed a single mission, and boast a rather impressive record for a fresh squad. 10 D-Rank missions, 4-C-Rank missions, and 1 B-Rank mission currently in-progress." Gasho read.

"Mmkay…" Naruto mused, closing his eyes for a moment. "Tell me more."

"From what Neji has reported, all of his pupils seem to be very skilled at their own talents. Sedai, for example, is very adept at using the Gentle Fist style in combat. His coordination is unmatched and his use of the Byakugan is dwarfed only by his mother and his sensei. However, his endurance and stamina leave a little something to be desired."

000

The canopy of thick foliage high above in the Land of Fire's signature gigantic trees blocked any of the midmorning light from reaching the sea of grass below, leaving the landscape in an eerie dusk. With the soft whisper of rustling leaves, a circle of light broke forth from the canopy, and moments later, two limp bodies fell out of the looming leaves and hit the ground with a sickening thud. Both were dressed in all black and very dead. Moments later, more leaves rustled, and three more bodies dropped from the canopy one after the other, much more alive than the two previous ones.

The first to land to the ground was a tall, stern-looking man holding a bloody kunai in one hand. His eyes were blank and featureless, and his lengthy dark brown hair framed his face. He quickly disappeared into the surrounding darkness moments before the next person landed: a short and very feminine-looking boy with extremely dark blue hair. His eyes were white and featureless, like the man who had previously emerged, but that was where the similarities ended. His skin was a lot fairer and not hard and stern in the least. Heaving a sigh and wiping his brow of sweat, he followed after the other man, and several moments later, the last of the three forms landed on his feet. His half-lidded brown eyes stared off after his teammates as he tugged in annoyance at the band that kept his smooth blonde ponytail in place.

The three shinobi regrouped in front of a small-looking shack. The blonde boy furled his eyebrows. "_This_ is our target? Where they're keeping her?" he asked skeptically.

"Sedai." the older man said, nodding to the shorter blank-eyed boy.

"Yeah, Neji-sensei." Sedai's high and child-like voice replied with a nod, looking at the ground and making a Tiger hand seal.

"Byakugan…" he growled as his pupils suddenly became more defined and the veins along his temples and cheeks began to bulge expand. It looked to be taking a bit of effort to maintain this state.

"The complex is underground, Shindoi." Sedai says, turning his eyes briefly to his blonde teammate. "There are multiple sublevels but our targets are on the first. There are seventeen bodies on the first sublevel, not including our two targets. All of them are armed."

With a sigh, Sedai closed his eyes and the Byakugan 'retracted', returning his eyes back to their original blank state.

"Seventeen? Easy." Neji scoffed, looking at the thick metal door before them. Wordlessly and almost effortlessly, his eyes and temples took on the same defined appearance as his pupil's. Staring at the door for a long moment, he finally raised a hand and pressed one finger onto a part of the door that looked no different than the rest of it. "This is the weakest part of the metal that makes up the door. Shindoi, place a tag here."

"Sure." the blonde boy said, tugging at his ponytail again before carefully taking a crisp tag, inscribed with several special kanji, all written in a pattern around the kanji for 'explode'. "We've got five seconds after I adhere it to get out of range."

The moment Shindoi attached the explosive tag to the point on the door where his sensei had his hand, all three of them turned and sprung high into the air, disappearing into the shadows of the trees.

When the rustling stopped, all was silent for a few brief moments before…

*BOOOM!*

000

Naruto drummed his fingers on his desk as he listened. "Go on, Gasho. As much as I'd like to hear about my son all day, there are others to be spoken of."

"Yes, sir. Shindoi Nara-Yamanaka, eldest son of Ino and Shikamaru Nara-Yamanaka." he started, but paused when Naruto chuckled slightly.

"I love those two. They argue constantly. Before they got married, they even argued over who would take who's name. The final compromise always makes me laugh when I hear it." Naruto said with a smile. "…Oh! Sorry, Gasho, go on."

"Yes, my lord." the old man said with a nod and a grin. "Shindoi is very intelligent in that he is witty, like his mother, and a skilled tactician, like his father. He's adept at Nara clan Shadow Manipulation, more so than Yamanaka Clan Mind Manipulation. Luckily, his mother's temper seems to have passed him over, but unfortunately, he did manage to inherit his father's work ethic… He has the potential to be an amazing shinobi, if he would apply himself more. But he's almost always 75% ninja and 25% slacker."

000

The sound of groups of footsteps thundered down the halls of the underground facility, lit with dim overhead lamps.

"Move! Move! Move!"

"Find them! Quickly!"

"Gather more men! We can't let them get to the captive!"

The yells were many as armed ninja sprinted about the complex with swords and knives at the ready. As one ran down an empty hallway, he stopped for a moment and peered down a dark hallway. With a suspicious squint, he was about to walk down the hallway, until an angry voice beckoned him over quickly.

The darkness of that suspicious hallway was an artificial wall of shadow, and on the other side of that wall were Neji, Sedai, and Shindoi, the latter of the three being the one channeling the wall of shadow with a hand seal. Laying on the floor beside the three of them was the lifeless body of an enemy ninja with a small circular bruise in the center of his forehead.

"I can only hold this for four minutes." Shindoi said. "And if anyone in this complex can detect the chakra I'm expending to maintain it, we may not even have _that_ long. Unroll the stupid prints already."

"Fine, fine…" Sedai sighed, unrolling a long blue sheet recovered on the body of the downed enemy. After looking at it for a few moments, he furled his thin brows in confusion, but as Shindoi looked at it, he nodded his head. A shadow extended from the ground and up Sedai's body, forming a hand on the blueprints which pointed to a large room near the upper right.

"Alright, that's where we need to be." Shindoi declared.

"Shindoi, are you sure these are the prints for the first sublevel?" Sedai asked him.

"No, I'm not sure those are the prints for the first sublevel, because those are the prints to the _second_ sublevel."

"Our targets are on the _first_ sublevel, though." Sedai argued.

"Duh. We can't just bust through all the goons on this level and walk into where they're holding her."

"Why can't we? We have the manpower." Sedai offered.

"Have you forgotten this guy's intentions? He may have captured one of the richest kids in Konoha and is currently using her as a bargaining chip, but what he's really after is you two." Shindoi explained. "Now that the Sharingan and the Rinnegan are extinct, this B-Rank criminal thinks he can cash in on the next best thing. I'd bet anything they'd pay top dollar on the black market for a functioning Hyuga eye."

Shindoi paused for a moment as more footsteps passed before he continued, quieter. "He thinks he's smart because either one of two things will happen: either we'll trade a pair of Hyuga eyes for her return, or we'll come and get her ourselves and walk into a trap. Either way, this rookie thug isn't going to kill her until he gets the eyes that he wants, and of course, neither of those things are going to happen. Now, we've got fifteen seconds. As soon as the wall drops, break for the stairs so we can get in position."

Neji nodded, his Byakugan surfacing again, and Sedai made a seal to do the same. As soon as the wall of shadow dissipated, the two of them drew kunai and rushed out of the hallway.

"Psh. If they wanted a good bargaining chip, they should've captured _me_." Shindoi sighed to himself before he began to follow.

000

Naruto rested his feet on his desk as he reclined, nodding as he listened to Gasho's reports.

"And last but not least, Suni Haruno, one of three triplet siblings under the guardianship of Sakura Haruno." the old advisor said with a nod. Birth parents are unknown. Suni is a very upbeat girl, almost always smiling and happy about most things. She's more inclined to careful and silent strikes from the shadows when she focuses. Stealth is her forte. It's almost impossible to surprise or sneak up on Suni as long as she isn't distracted."

000

While the rest of the complex was full of activity, one room was still and silent: the chamber where the captive was being held. At the door, two ninja armed with electrically charged prods waited on either end. Two more masked ninja stood on either end of the chair where the raven-haired captive sat, holding sharpened blades to the girl's throat.

The captive's angry grey eyes stared up at the stout, spectacled man smiling down at her, unable to speak through the rope gag between her jaws. Her eyes wavered for a moment before she lowered her head and coughed raggedly. The portly man who appeared to be leading the rest of the black-clad ninja frowned before snapping his fingers. "Take the gag off."

One of the ninja standing beside the girl's chair lowered his sword to untie her gag and toss it aside. The girl gasped and coughed again for a few moments before speaking.

"What creeps snatch up a girl picking flowers, huh? What am I doing here with you weirdoes, anyway? You can't keep me here forever." her high and juvenile voice growled at the large man.

"I don't plan to, Siri, or… whatever you told me your name was." he replied with a snarky roll of his eyes. "I just have to hold you here until your little friends walk through that door."

He points to the entrance and the crackling electric prods being held by his goons.

"And when they do, I'll have four perfect Hyuga eyes to sell. Before the end of the week, Hando Gure will be one of the richest men in the Land of Fire."

"It's Suni… And why are you telling me all this?" she sneered.

"Why not?" Hando chuckled. "Dead men tell no tales. Neither do dead little girls…"

The goon still holding a sword ran it slowly and sadistically under Suni's chin, the tip drawing a drop of blood.

"Now, then, just be a good girl and keep quiet until we're ready to dispose of you. Put the gag back in; she's had enough air for right now." Hando said, snapping his finger. The second goon lowered his sword again to pick up the gag, but before he could wrap it around her head again, an explosion blew through the floor, rattling the room and sending up plumes of smoke.

"What on earth?" Hando screamed, moments before the floor began to break apart. Within moments, the entire room had collapsed into the next level down, sending up large clouds of dusty plaster and gravel.

Shindoi and Sedai coughed loudly and waved their hands around to blow some of the dust away.

"I'll be honest… *cough!* I did not see this coming." Shindoi admitted.

"Shut up… *cough cough!* Sedai growled, rubbing his eyes. "Ugh, this plaster dust got in my eyes…"

He blinked his eyes open as best as he could, but they were painfully reddened and unable to open fully. "I can't use the Byakugan like this…"

"Well, just follow my voice. My eyes are fine. I'll try to find Suni and Neji-sensei." Shindoi said, turning and disappearing into the rising dust.

Sedai followed the direction that Shindoi was, but it wasn't long before he was lost again. "Shindoi! You have to _talk_ for me to follow your voice! Where the heck did you go?"

Sedai stumbled blind and aimless for a moment more before he heard another voice.

"Sedai! Shindoi!" came Neji's voice.

"Neji-sensei, I can't see!" Sedai called back, rubbing his eyes again. "Where are you?"

A shadow emerged behind Sedai, and he heard the footsteps before he heard the voice and the crackling electricity.

"Neji-sensei?" he guessed, turning around.

"Guess again, Hyuga." Hando's voice growled before he prodded Sedai in the chest with the electrically charged rod, sending searing lightning through his body and causing him to scream out.

Nearby, Neji heard the scream and immediately turned, faintly seeing the light of the crackling surges.

"Sedai!" he yelled, quickly taking a Gentle Fist stance. "Eight Trigrams! Air Palm!"

The Jonin quickly pushed his hand forward propelling a blast of compressed air in the direction of the yell. The dust cloud gave way to the air blast just in time for Neji to see Sedai's limp body collapse to the ground. He sprinted forward, delivering a few well-placed finger jabs into Hando's body, causing him to drop the prod to the ground.

"Air Palm!" he yelled again, blasting another bullet of air into his face, shattering Hando's glasses and causing him to fall to the floor, unconscious. "Sedai, wake up…"

Neji placed a hand on his chest to try to find his heartbeat, then cursed under his breath when he couldn't.

"Hey, Neji-sensei, I found Suni and untied her." Shindoi said, emerging from the nearby dust with the girl on her back. "Whoa! What happened to him?"

"He got shocked and his heart isn't beating. Back up, I'm going to blow a hole out of here."

"How? I used the last of my paper bombs just to destroy _this_ ceiling." Shindoi said.

"Stop asking questions! These enemy ninja won't be dazed and stumbling around for long! Just _back up_!" Neji commanded. Shindoi backed up, Suni still on his back.

Neji activated his Byakugan before making a quick hand sign, closing his eyes, and breathing in deeply. As he exhaled, his pore opened and a misty blue chakra flowed out and seemed to surround him in a mystical aura. He opened his eyes, and his Byakugan appeared much sharper and more defined.

"Eight Trigrams First Tier!" he yelled, pointing the palm of his hand up toward the sky. "Arrow Palm!"

A harsh and focused beam of force and chakra exploded out of the pores on Neji's palms, flying up through the shattered ceiling of the second sublevel and colliding with the ceiling of the first, blowing a giant hole up to the surface and causing more rock and plaster to fall and kick up another giant cloud of dusk.

"Rotation!" Neji shouted, dissipating the new cloud and clearing the air enough to see the light flood in from the surface. "Come on and keep up!"

The Jonin scooped his limp apprentice into his arms before leaping into the air and bounding off of the walls surrounding them all until he was firmly on the grass of the surface. Shindoi and Suni weren't far behind.

"Go! Go! Go!" Neji commanded, disappearing on foot into the trees with his two conscious protégés in tow. When they were far enough away from the base they vandalized, Neji set Sedai on the ground.

"Suni, did your mother ever teach you any of her medical ninjutsu? It could really be of some use here." Neji asked as he unzipped Sedai's jacket.

"Just a little…" Suni muttered, kneeling beside her teammate and placing one of her hands on his chest. Her hand flashed green for a second and Sedai's chest jumped. "Shindoi, lift his legs a little. That should get some blood flowing back to his heart."

Shindoi nodded, elevating Sedai's ankles as another pulse of chakra pumped into his chest. Suni's brows creased in frustration…

"Suni, this isn't working… Is he-"

"He's not dead!" Suni shouted stubbornly, parting Sedai's jaws and cupping her lips over his, blowing chakra-infused air into his lungs. She lifted herself up, staring down at his body with wetting eyes and biting her lip in anticipation. After a few moments, Sedai woke with a start, gasping loudly and panting heavily.

"What the heck happened?" he asked between pants.

"Ah, nothing…" Shindoi sighed, dropping Sedai's ankles an standing to his feet. "You just kinda died for a minute there. Boy, your dad would've flipped his lid, eh?"

Neji helped Sedai to his feet. "Glad you're back. Let's get going before they find us out here."

Neji and Shindoi jumped up into the branches of the dark trees, but Sedai paused, looking at Suni, who still had tears in her eyes.

"Don't scare me like that again." she said with a sniffle, hugging Sedai tightly.

"O-Ow…" he groaned, trying to hold back his blush. "Don't mention it… Are _you_ okay?"

"My jaw aches a little and I hurt my butt when I fell through the floor and broke the chair I was in, but I'll be alright." Suni sighed, rubbing her rump. She took a step, and her pained limping gait was obvious.

"Want me to carry you?" Sedai offered, taking a step toward her.

"Sedai, I can't let you do that. You almost d- Whoa!"

Suni gasped in surprise as Sedai swept her off her feet and onto his back. The revived Uzumaki just smiled at her.

"I'll be fine, I promise." he says, leaping into the trees with a grunt. "Urk! A-At least I'll be fine until we catch up with sensei and Shindoi…"

With another leap, the pair disappeared into the darkness of the trees as well.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! Once again, if you like what you've read, it'd be really nice if you left a review saying so! The next chapter will be up as soon as possible! Till then! n_n**


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